flocks Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 hi all the landy needs a new x cross member and i am planning on making my own but was wondering what wall thinkness it should be. i spoke to a steel stock holder today and the thinnest they have in stock is 5mm wall, this seems a bit thick and heavy to me, it weighs something like 25kgs for the length required. any help would be great many thanks flocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I don't know much myself, but have a read of the links in the tech archive here: http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=40835 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I used a folded peice of 5mm steel (folded into a C shape). Carefully cut away the old member leaving all of the chassis rails in place. Reparired them where needed and cut slots into them that the botom of the folded steel slid into. I then added 3mm extensions as required that i could weld to the chassis rails. All seems to have worked quite well really. The C section is open at the back so there are no mud traps but it is strengthened into an open (ish) box where the tow bar joins on for added strength there. There are lots of very good threads in here and the tech archive on this. Do a search and trawl through the irrelevant results to find the good ones - it is worth it for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 The beginnings of mine are in the link above, the end result looked like this. 160x80x5 box, it's fully sealed so no chance of the inside getting full of mud and rotting out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige90 Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I used 75x75 box section with a 3mm wall. Welded two lengths together to make a 150x75 and cut an angle each end to match the original profile. Capped the open areas with 3mm plate so like Lukes it is also fully sealed. Not too heavy either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landrover598 Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 I made a copy of the original x member by having a c section bend up in 2mm plate, and fully boxed it in and fully welded all the joints. As it's not supporting a winch i didn't see any point in over engineering it (a first ) and only cost £25 for the folded section of steel, boxed in with offcuts i had Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flocks Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share Posted January 16, 2010 Cheers for the info so far I think I will go for 3mm plate and have it bent to match original to keep weight down a bit. flocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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